In the third full month (May) of the West Asia crisis this year, India’s imports of crude oil surged nearly 7.5% from April, whilst that of liquified natural gas (LNG) increased about 16%. However, the country’s import bill for crude oil surged 14.7% and that of LNG more than 22% during the same period, indicating a perusal of latest and previously-available comparative provisional data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

When assessed from the comparable period last year, India’s crude imports surged 1.41% to 21.6 million metric tons (MMT) in May this year.

However, amidst the crisis, India’s importers had to pay $18.7 billion during the reported period which is approximately 81.6% higher than it did in the comparable period last year at $10.3 billion.

In April this year, India had imported 20.1 MMT of crude oil spending $16.3 billion. It spent $0.9 billion to import 1,954 MMSCMD of LNG in April.

The country’s import bill for LNG in May stayed flat from the same month last year at $1.1 billion although imports slid 21% during the mentioned period to 2,266 million metric standard cubic metre per day (MMSCMD).